Powers and abilities

Fate

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“True to his incredible strengths, all Bob wants to do is save the world - even if he has to do it undercover. It takes almost losing everything, however, for him to see that the real source of his power is his extraordinary family.”

Contents

Background

Mr. Incredible is a person from a race of humans born with superpowers and is referred to as a "Super." He was one of the most famous heroes of his era and was known for his skill at fighting crime. At some point, he met and fell in love with fellow superhero Elastigirl. However, soon after the two wed, bystanders who had been injured during crime-fighting attempts began to sue. The backlash forced supers like Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl into retirement and witness protection. Mr. Incredible resumed the name of Bob Parr and began a civilian life with Elastigirl, now in her civilian identity as Helen Parr.

Mr. Incredible is considered one of the most powerful Supers. During his early career, he was known for working alone, which was something that led him to push away Buddy Pine. He possesses the powers of enhanced strength and durability, as well as enhanced senses.

In the Operation Kronos database, Mr. Incredible was given a threat rating of 9.1, the highest rating of any of the supers.

Official Description

Mr. Incredible loves being a superhero. He's glad to be back in action, with his family and friends by his side.

Personality

Bob's personality is that of a classical hero. At his core, he desires to be a hero and paragon and to do good for its own sake. But as shown in newsreels, Bob is physically invulnerable, but all too human in his flaws. He grows weary of a world that will not stay saved for more than five minutes; and later, shows a streak of hubris and arrogant pride, seeking to relive his glory days at the expense of his family life.

Bob's commitment to doing what is right is so strong that he displays it even when not involved in heroics. This is shown when while working for Insuricare, he constantly found legal loopholes to help his customers, which often earned him the ire of his greedy and selfish boss, Mr. Huph. These disagreements eventually came to a head, when during a meeting, Bob noticed a mugging and tried to intervene but was stopped when Mr. Huph threatened to fire him. Finally fed up, Bob angrily grabbed Mr. Huph by the neck and accidentally threw him through five walls that nearly killed him, which caused Bob to lose his job.

Bob also has a tendency to try to solve the world's problems on his own, refusing and actively dismissing help from anyone, even from his loving wife and the sage council of his best friend Frozone. These flaws combined nearly cost him his life and the lives of his family.

Bob is also calm, collected, and polite, but occasionally he exhibits an intimidating and ferocious rage, and if sufficiently angered, he can be quite fearsome. When his boss, Gilbert Huph, threatened to fire him if he chased a mugger, he strangled his boss and violently tossed him against a wall, appearing to break several of his bones. He always tries to reason with his opponents and appeal to their better nature to avoid unnecessary violence, but if a villain could not be reasoned with and posed a threat to innocent lives, he tries to terminate them if their capture wasn't an option because he knows how many innocent lives could be lost if he allows them to live. However, he always spares an opponent if they appeared to have underlying goodness, such as Mirage.

Bob is solely interested in his wife Helen, but treats other women with respect. This trait was picked up by Syndrome, who instructs Mirage to be appreciative, but not seductive, towards Mr. Incredible. Bob sees having dinner with Mirage after he deactivated an Omnidroid as a social event and nothing more than that. However, it could be argued that Mirage was having somewhat of a positive effect on Bob's self-image, making him take up a workout routine (albeit one catering to building up his super strength), and Bob behaving more self-assuredly in a manner similar to James Bond. Also, having endured dressing downs and a later job termination from his boss Mr. Huph, Mirage's large payouts and appreciation of the missions were an exact opposite of the hostile workplace he dealt with at Insuricare.

In Incredibles 2, Bob has learned to keep his ego somewhat in check. While initially jealous that Helen was chosen to be the face of the superhero legalization campaign over him, he swallowed his pride and was ultimately the one who convinced her to do it, even admitting that it was for his sake after claiming it was for their children. Also, despite his jealousies, Bob continued to deeply love Helen, immediately attempting to rescue her when he believed she was in danger.

With Helen doing superhero work, Bob decided to try his best at being a good dad for his children. However, his aggressive methods of doing so ironically only caused him to push them away. Meanwhile, his wife's success caused him to hide his failings from her. All of this ultimately caused him to exhaust himself, during which he acted selfishly and short-tempered. It is only when he vents his frustrations and apologizes that he and his children finally start to develop a genuine connection.

Physical appearance

Bob is an exceptionally tall and muscular man with a massive chest, shoulders, and arms (as it befits his superhuman strength). He has blond hair (which has receded in his middle-age) and blue eyes. As a younger man, he was slim-waisted, but by the time his daughter, Violet was in middle school, he had become obese and was forced to undergo a strenuous diet and exercise regimen, after which he lost enough weight to resume his super heroics before leaving to go to Nomanisan Island.

Powers and abilities

Powers

Superhuman Strength: Mr. Incredible's primary superpower is his vast superhuman strength. According to Syndrome's data files of "Supers", Bob's exact lifting limit is well in excess of 66 tons, though he was previously seen bench-pressing an ACLO locomotive, which weighs 153 tons. His threat rating is 9.1, a level none of the other superheroes in his world had, making him one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Even in middle age, he is phenomenally strong, able to throw boulders at high speed and accuracy, and be on equal footing with the Omnidroid v.8.

Superhuman Leap: Mr. Incredible's superhuman strength extends to all his musculature. His strong legs allow him to jump an incredible heights in the air, with a significant freedom in his agility and movement.

Superhuman Speed: His super-humanly strong leg muscles also give him a certain degree of enhanced, near-superhuman speed, as he can run significantly faster than a normal human—though neither his speed nor agility approach that of his son Dash.

Enhanced Agility: His super-humanly strong muscles allow him to move and perform feats of great agility a normal human being could never do without hurting himself or damaging his ligaments. Combined with his jumping ability, Mr. Incredible is able to perform some astonishing maneuvers no other normal human or even the finest of athletes could do.

Enhanced Durability: Mr. Incredible is able to withstand tremendous amounts of physical trauma and blunt forces, including multi-story falls, the direct impact of a train, breaking through brick walls, and surviving 100,000 volts of electricity under torture. However he is not indestructible; he can still be cut with very hard metals and a suitable amount of force. Despite the fact that Mr. Incredible has a near-superhuman degree of resistance to impacts and pain, things that produce a tremendous amount of blunt force can still hurt him or even pierce his skin. This is shown when he is about to stop the passenger train, he winces just before it hits him. According to director Brad Bird, it was him "preparing for the fact that it's going to hurt". This was shown again during his battle with the Omnidroid v.8 on Nomanisan Island, when the robot tried to pin Mr. Incredible to the ground but only succeeded in slicing his left shoulder, causing it to bleed. In a deleted scene, however, his body could withstand being cut by a butcher knife, and also dent it in the process, as demonstrated when he was trying to cleave some food for the grill, and accidentally chopped his fingers. This also in a way acted as a weakness as it would have given away his identity to their new neighbors, so he had to fake injury in order to maintain cover. Also, in the beginning of The Incredibles movie, when a normal thug threatened him by pointing a gun at him point blank, Mr. Incredible showed no concern or preoccupation getting shot by a low-caliber bullet. However he may have gestured it to simply intimidate the armed individual. Other instances he has tried to avoid gunfire.

Enhanced Senses: Mr. Incredible also has very sharp senses. This power is seen when Bomb Voyage is about to blow open the vault of a skyrise building; Mr. Incredible is able to hear the faint beeping of the bomb from the other side of a thick wall. Also, when he arrived home after some hours of vigilantism, he rapidly noticed the presence of another person in the room, which was Helen.

Abilities

Expert Strategist: Being a veteran superhero, years of field experience and super-heroic actions allow him to rapidly formulate effective strategies to deal with opponents who cannot be bested by his strength alone. It also allows him to work well with other heroes he's familiar with and take advantage of their powers in concert with his own.

Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Mr. Incredible's vast experience and years of practicing have turned him into a great unarmed combatant. Also, shown by the fighting pose he adopted when detecting his wife Helen's presence (thinking she was an intruder).

Skilled mathematician: Bob is shown to be very good in mathematical tasks: in his first scenes as an insurance employee, he was able to remember and repeat complex serial numbers of documents, while in the second movie he was able to understand and resolve Dash' math homework and successfully teach him in the span of a night.

Weaknesses

Mr. Incredible doesn't appear to have any superhuman weaknesses, but is as vulnerable as anyone to hubris from the veneration of his "glory days" and in middle age, he has a bad back. However, in a deleted scene, it was implied that his superhuman durability was in itself a weakness, as it would have exposed him when his fingers dented a butcher knife when he accidentally chopped his hand with it, forcing him to act fast and fake injury, and later allowed him to be identified by one of the neighbors, an agent of Syndrome.

His immense strength can also be a huge weakness he often has difficulty controlling, as shown when he constantly breaks or dents objects, such as his car and a small plate. It also became a problem when he threw Huph through five walls, which was much harder than he intended.

Despite being nearly invulnerable, he is shown to have an aversion to lava, suggesting he is not completely invincible and can be hurt and ultimately killed by molten substances.

Appearances

At first Mr. Incredible is enjoying the life of a superhero, or "Super" as they are called. Then, Buddy Pine tries to become his sidekick and his exuberance gets him into trouble and leads to several civilians being injured, including Oliver Sansweet who did not want him to save his life. Meanwhile, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl get married. Due to the events of that night, the public turns against Mr. Incredible and all the supers in response to the injuries; and they are forced to hang up their capes. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl go into hiding as Bob and Helen Parr and try to lead a normal life. He and his wife Helen have 3 children: Violet, who is able to generate force fields and turn invisible, Dash, who can run super fast, and Jack-Jack, who initially is thought to be powerless [though it is later revealed that he has several very impressive powers.] Bob is immensely unhappy in his civilian life and is having a mid-life crisis, because he and his family are forced to hide their powers and are miserable, and because his civilian job is a soul-crushing tedium which goes against all he stands for. This leads him to sneak out with his friend Frozone and fight crime covertly. When he furiously assaults his boss after being prevented from saving a man who was getting mugged outside their window, he is fired from his job at the insurance company and the government is called into again cover his actions as a super and relocate him, a task for his much put-upon case handler Rick Dicker.

Facing Syndrome.

Before he can tell his family, a mysterious woman named Mirage offers him a large sum of money to stop a robot in a covert job "for the government". He is able to complete the task successfully but tears his old suit in the process. He receives a new suit from Edna Mode, who is a famous fashion icon and former super suit designer. Bob spends the next two months getting back into shape while pretending to still be employed at his former job for the sake of his family not having to move. However, his next assignment turns out to be a trap. Bob is captured by Buddy Pine, now the super villain Syndrome, who intends to avenge himself after being shunned by Supers. Syndrome blamed Mr. Incredible for not admitting him as a sidekick. Bob learns that the robot fights had simply been a ruse to discover flaws in the design for a greater plan and that Syndrome intends to fake being a superhero by defeating the robot in a rigged crisis. Bob is able to escape, though barely. Later he uses the computer to discover that many other Supers died during the testing of the robots. Unfortunately, a tracking device in his suit trips an alarm and he is recaptured. Syndrome tortures him for information about the beacon, but Bob denies calling for help. After Syndrome taunts him some more for his cleverness, Bob is led to believe that his family has been killed when Syndrome shoots down their plane. He lunges at Syndrome in anger, but grabs Mirage instead. Bob threatens to kill Mirage unless freed, but Syndrome calls his bluff. Bob ultimately relents, earning him more contempt from the villain.

Mr. Incredible prepares to battle alongside his family.

Later, Bob reunites with his wife, though he is caught embracing Mirage, who had just freed him. Bob and Helen bicker for a bit, then regroup with the children. Syndrome captures the family to try to stop them from interfering with his plan, but they are able to escape with help from Violet and Mirage. Bob and his family return to Metroville and are able to stop Syndrome's robot after a lengthy fight. Bob's journey in returning to the head of his family and superheroing is completed when he learns that his youngest son Jack-Jack is indeed a very special super and that his family is the greatest prize worth saving and his greatest adventure. The end of the film shows that Bob and his family now fight crime together as "The Incredibles."

In the 2005 DVD release of The Incredibles on Disc 2 for an unproduced pilot of a fictional animated series, Mr. Incredible, Frozone, and a rabbit named Mr. Skipperdoo team up when they witness the disappearance of the West River Bridge in which Mr. Skipperdoo shows them a radioactive bolt in which the radioactivity comes from a villain no other than Lady Lightbug who is planning to terrorize Metroville with her radioactivity. As Frozone repairs part of the bridge, he, Mr. Skipperdoo and Mr. Incredible plan to go after Lady Lightbug where they discover an abandoned amusement park alongside the villain Lady Lightbug. Mr. Incredible manages to capture her to foil her plans and save Metroville. At the end of the episode, a sneak peek shows a preview of the next episode showing Mr. Incredible fighting an anthropomorphic corn named Evil Cornhead.

In the optional commentary for the short episode, Mr. Incredible and Frozone both express about the quality of the limited animation and how they were portrayed in this short.

Bob Parr appears in the sequel, with Craig T. Nelson reprising his role. In the sequel, Bob and his family's fight against The Underminer picks up where it left off: The Incredibles beat The Underminer but fail to catch him. Afterwards they are arrested for the damages the Underminer did to the city. Rick Dicker bails them out and escorts them to the motel they will be staying at for now. On their way Violet reveals that Tony Rydinger, her love interest, saw her use her powers when she was not wearing her mask. Bob informs Dicker of this. Rick informs Bob and Helen that the Super Relocation Program has been shut down and that they will only be able to stay in the motel for two weeks. That night, Frozone appears and escorts them to DevTech where they meet Winston Deavor and his sister Evelyn Deavor. The siblings tell the three of them that they are going to launch a promotional campaign to make Supers legal again and they want Elastigirl to head it since her heroics are the least costly. Bob urges Helen to do it as their choice is that she do this or they become homeless. The Deavers move them into a new home.

A very sleep-deprived Bob.

After Helen leaves, Bob takes charge of the kids. Bob gets into trouble later that afternoon. Violet is stood up by Tony and misses her date due to the fact that that Dicker had erased his memory for which they have a falling out. Dash's math homework is complicated but he manages to help him catch up. He also discovers that thanks to Kari McKeen, Jack-Jack had awakened at least seventeen powers during the battle with Syndrome. Bob tries to help Violet patch things up with Tony by bringing her to the restaurant he works at only for her to end up humiliating herself. Later, a very sleep-deprived Bob is helping Dash with his homework when they see a news report about how a rich man has purchased the Incredible. Bob is understandably furious, since he was told it had been destroyed. Things get worse when Jack-Jack uses his powers in front of Dash and Violet who are shocked that he knew. When they tried to confront him, Bob finally snaps at them out of rage, as he vents how overwhelmed he is. The stunned kids then decide to call Lucius who comes over to help deal with Jack-Jack and advises Bob to get some outside help after seeing his abilities. Bob leaves Jack-Jack with Edna Mode and returns home, where he is able to apologize to Violet and at last falls into a deep sleep, from which he doesn't awaken for 17 hours. Finally able to get some much needed rest, Bob awakens the next day in a much better mood. Returning to Edna's Bob finds the superhero designer has worked all night to create a new supersuit for Jack-Jack, complete with a controller that can detect which of his powers will activate and can supply appropriate countermeasures to allow the family to keep them under control, since the REAL problem is that Jack-Jack has many powers but no real ability to control them.

Later, Evelyn calls Bob and tells him something has happened to Helen. This is revealed to be a trap when Evelyn forces the mind-controlled Helen to put the hypno-goggles on him, which resulted Bob being placed under Evelyn's control. Bob and Helen are joined by a newly-hypnotized Lucius and board the Devtech ship, where Evelyn makes them speak to the public about how they denounce Supers for the harm they cause. Dash, Violet, and Jack-Jack board the ship and find their parents and Lucius. After Jack-Jack removes the goggles from Helen, she removes the goggles from Bob and Lucius, freeing them from Evelyn's control. The Incredibles and Lucius work together to free the other brainwashed Supers from Evelyn's control, stop the now-runaway boat from crashing into the city, and turn the treacherous Evelyn to police custody. Shortly thereafter, Supers are made legal again.

Mr. Incredible (this time without his superhero identity) makes brief appearances in this short where he brings his baby Jack-Jack for Edna to babysit him and study his powers. At the end of the short, Edna then takes Jack-Jack to Bob as she explains to him that whenever she babysits Jack-Jack (unlike other babies), she does not charge him as Bob and Jack-Jack leave for home. Later after Bob leaves, Edna notices Jack-Jack (presumably a clone of himself) next to her, as Edna runs off telling Bob that he forgot his baby.

Relationships

Gallery

Trivia

At the beginning of the original film, Bob was 25 years old. He was also much slimmer than he was in the present day.

In present day, 40-year old Bob had become somewhat obese, gaining a large gut. He goes on a diet and intense training regime and eventually succeeds in losing a lot of the weight. According to official sources, Bob Parr is 6'7" (200 cm) in height and is 350 pounds (158 kg) in weight.

In an early draft for the film, he broke the law when he married Elastigirl and had children, as said in the alternate beginning when Syndrome (then a minor one-shot villain who sought revenge) discovered that Mr. Incredible was married to Elastigirl, and they had a baby, he said "Isn't it illegal for Supers to breed?" This concept was cut in the final version, and when a similar revelation was made, he doesn't mention anything about whether it was legal or not for Supers to marry and have kids.

Bob Parr is the first human protagonist in a Pixar feature film.

In the second film, Bob admits that many people have discovered his secret identity but Rick Dicker has always been able to erase their memories.

At the start of the first movie, Bob expresses the desire to retire from superhero duties and make himself a family, while Helen dismisses the idea entirely; in the end, their attitudes towards civilian life are the exact opposite, with Helen content to be a housewife and Bob uncapable of letting go of his past.

Bob and Helen both still own their classic supersuits in the second film, although it would be assumed the suits would have been destroyed with their old house in the first film: they may have survived because, like Edna shows, the suits are nearly indestructible.

Curiously, both Incredibles' movies start with Bob failing to catch a supercriminal: Bomb Voyage in the first and the Underminer in the second.

When Bob, at the end of the first movie, opens his shirt and reveals his super suit under it, he does it in a similar way to Superman, DC Comics hero known for striking the same pose.